Parsons Green trial teenager’s ‘duty to hate Britain’

An Iraqi teenager accused of trying to blow up a rush-hour Tube train blamed Britain for the death of his father in an air raid and said he had a “duty” to hate the country, the Old Bailey was told.

Ahmed Hassan, now 18, allegedly told a Barnardos worker at a hostel that his father, a taxi driver, had been killed by a bomb. He is later said to have told a teacher at Brooklands College in Weybridge, Surrey, that he blamed Britain for his father’s death.

Mr Hassan was referred to the Prevent programme in 2016 over fears that he was being radicalised. The following summer, instead of going on holiday with his foster family, he allegedly stayed at home to build the bomb